Sports

Osaka pulls out of Rome quarters with hand injury

May 17, 2019
Japan's Naomi Osaka during a press conference after withdrawing from her Italian Open quarterfinal match against Kiki Bertens of Netherlands due to injury at the Foro Italico, Rome, Italy, on Friday. — Reuters
Japan's Naomi Osaka during a press conference after withdrawing from her Italian Open quarterfinal match against Kiki Bertens of Netherlands due to injury at the Foro Italico, Rome, Italy, on Friday. — Reuters

ROME — World No. 1 Naomi Osaka pulled out of the Italian Open quarterfinals on Friday with a right thumb injury, casting doubts over her participation in this month's French Open.

The 21-year-old Japanese was scheduled to face sixth seed Kiki Bertens after coming through two matches on Thursday in the rain-affected tournament but said she was forced to withdraw due to pain and swelling at the base of her thumb.

"I woke up this morning and couldn't really move my thumb," Osaka told reporters. "I tried to practice and grip my racket but I couldn't, and I kept feeling this pain when I tried to move my hand in different directions.

"Right now I'm... in between sad and disappointed because I really wanted to play my match today. For me, it was sort of a test to play against Kiki because she's playing really well and I wanted to see how well I could do today.

"I didn't feel anything yesterday. That's why I'm kind of confused right now because I literally woke up in the morning and couldn't move my thumb. So I was like, maybe I slept on it and maybe it will go away, but it didn't."

An abdominal injury had forced Osaka to pull out ahead of her semifinal clash in Stuttgart last month before she was beaten by Belinda Bencic in the Madrid Open quarterfinals.

"I would describe (my clay season) as rocky," Osaka added. "But I can't necessarily say it's been ups and downs because if I think about it, it's definitely been going up. Every match I've played I've learned a lot. I've tried to take what I've learned into the next match and I think I've done that well."

Following her US Open and Australian triumphs, Osaka is chasing a third straight Grand Slam trophy at the French Open which begins on May 26.

Sharapova out of

Roland Garros

Maria Sharapova has pulled out of this year's French Open with a shoulder injury, the two-time former Roland Garros winner announced on Wednesday.

Sharapova, 32, a five-time Grand Slam champion, has not played since pulling out of a tournament in her native Russia at the end of January.

"Sometimes the right decisions aren't always the easiest ones," she said in a post on her Instagram account.

"In better news, I have returned to the practice court, and slowly building the strength back in my shoulder," she added with a picture of her lifting the Roland Garros trophy in 2014.

In February the world No. 35 said she had undergone a small procedure to fix a long-standing shoulder problem.

The former world No. 1 had missed out on a place in the Australian Open quarterfinals in January.

Sharapova has been struggling back to top fitness since watching from the sidelines during her 15-month doping ban that ended in 2017.

This year's French Open will run from May 26 until June 9, with Rafael Nadal and Simona Halep as defending champions. — Reuters


May 17, 2019
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